Fotini and I earned 'Hall of Fame' status on Rock Band today... ie. beat the Band part of it... except for the endless setlist... which sounds like a nightmare. we played 20 songs today and my hand was killing me...

speaking of which, my abdomen is EFFED. like bad... or something. its been hurting since thursday, but keeps getting worse. i thought it was a muscle tear, but when i flex it doesnt hurt... it hurts like HELL when i push on it, and it hurts when i stand up. and it dully hurts all the time. its on the left, so i dont think its appendix... i dont know... if it still hurts monday, i'm going to urgent care. i took some gas-x incase it was something like that, but i never had a problem in that area... quite the opposite, and it didnt do anything... so now i just think i'm dying.

***

i completed all 50 Unique Stunt Jumps on GTAIV today. i was hoping to unlock a nice ride or something, but it didnt give me jack. it was fun though. some of those jumps are crazy, and i found a great jump right out of the motorcycle dealership... you jump so far, you jump out of police range, so you can steal a bike and get away scot free every single time.

***

we watched some more 'Dead Like Me' season two today... i'm going to miss it when its over. Daisy is definitely growing on me. i hated her at first.

***

I finished the first book of 'The Boys' today. i dont really like the art, but the story is pretty good. i think i still like Preacher better. I also started Y: The Last Man book one. I made fotini read 'The Killing Joke' last night in preparation for the new batman movie.

and i've been reading 'Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping'... i really want to be great at my job and i need all the help i can get.

***

i really don't care for the new My Morning Jacket record yet. which is a shame because I loved 'Z' so much...

I hope both Interpol and Maximo Park release records this winter. It could happen! *cough*

***

time to wipe a copy of Animal Crossing!

Poll #1167520
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Scene Two

***

We finished the second disc of Battlestar Season Three tonight. I just might be able to catch the first few from season four while they're still online... If we hump it.

'There Will Be Blood' was shipped to me from Netflix today. Sweet.

I'm freaking BEAT. B_E_A_T.

'Cake Mania' on the DS is both hard as hell and addictive as hell. In related news, I have a vagina.

In other related news, Tamara called me to get the answer for a crossword puzzle. Another word for testicles, 5 letters, starts with GON. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Gave it the ol' college win. I probably would have felt more accomplished if she left out the ON part and if I still nailed it. I need to get back to Prof. Layton. Hopefully he has some wang related puzzles in his pants for me.

I actually own Mr. Driller for the DS, and I still don't 'get it'. I played the demo on xbox live this week... is the only point to get a high score? because you can pretty much just keep drilling straight down forever as long as you are getting oxygen pick ups. i guess if you sorta focus on one color for a bit, the other colors will avalanche and you'll drop even faster.

either way... i dont see the challenge or the point.

any insight as to what makes this a 'game'?

his pops (Dig Dug) did it right.

Poll #1116656
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Random 80's battle...

I found a pretty hot photo of Annie Potts today... but I want the ladies in the 80's to battle it out. Also, I would love to see another scenario with Diane Franklin on top of Annie Potts... whew...



BTW... Karen FTW.

***

I talked a guy at Circuit City into buying Ratchet and Clank for the PS3. he came up to us and asked if we knew anything about games, and what would be a good ps3 game for a 10 year old girl.

i also scored some decent sale games... chocobo tales, rocket slime, 24:The Game, superman returns for the 360 as well as xmen for the 360... all for $8.96 each, metal slug anthology for $16.96, and mario party ds.

***

I want CoD!!! NOWS!

***

EDIT... my first tip for goldenfiddle was published! that's what you get for beating up a woman.

So, I rarely talk about it, but I'm still a music advisor for TheBlast.FM. Right now I've been trying to find a pick hit for the new Mae record. I think I'm pushing for 'Brink of Disaster', but there are a ton of great, aggressive songs on the album. 'Rocket' is way up there... 'Telescopes' sounds like Hum, and I love that.

Any suggestions brighten?

***

I spent most of yesterday at my in-laws house. It was pretty fun. Talking movies, eating green beans, playing the longest game of Pit EVER. And some Blokus. Fotini and I both went all the way out... very weird.

I also played a TON of 'Peggle'. It's a game for the iPod that plays a lot like Plinko from 'The Price is Right'.

If you have a (EDIT) sixth generation iPod or newer, you've GOT to try it. It's 5 bucks and it's addictive as hell. The graphics and gameplay are pretty great, even if the characters, storyline, etc are a bit childish.

I love that the iPod games have a quick 'save and exit'. EVERY portable game should have this. No matter where you are in the level, you should be able to save every DS and PSP game. I guess the PSP you can just shut down and it'll keep your place, but it SUCKS having to finish an area on the DS just to shut down.

'Drawn to Life' is maybe one of the best DS games ever. Any game that allows Master Shake to shoot snowballs out of his boner gun while hopping from boner cloud to bloody corn-poop cloud gets an A+ in my book.

...

In case you couldn't tell (really?) you get to DRAW a bunch of stuff in the game... your character, your weapons, some level elements... It's a juvenile wonderland.

I just had one of the greatest gaming victories of my life!  No, I didn't finish Puzzle Quest... I won at Koi-Koi on Clubhouse Games!  And kind of knew what I was doing!  It was a downright boning too... 76-24... YAYAYAYAY!  The best part is.... i never have to play it again, until next time.

Korn - Didn't bother naming their record. How punk rock... *cough
The National - Boxer (see Korn? That wasn't so hard, and they nailed it with 'Boxer'... great title)
Until June - (ok its self titled, but its their debut. Korn already had a self titled debut)
Mark Ronson - Version

***

PICROSS DS. It's great, dont get me wrong, but i admit i'm having to play it sans stylus... aka Mario's Picross style. How did they screw up the touchscreen controls!? Come on! Mario's Picross is like 12 years old and they got it right. oh well, at least it gives you options for both. the game really is fantastic. and its got tons of wifi games... and its only 20 bucks. so everyone with a DS, please buy it, then send me your friend code!

***

so a new girl started at work, left eye. i didnt even know she was going to work there and she showed up working. i love being out of the loop. haha... the justin situation has be confused as well. i dont know whats going anymore... i'm also waaaay over on inventory. our sales are way up, especially for the slowest time of the year, but i do have a lot of overstock. soooooo many albums just TANKED this year. i've been returning stuff right at the 90 days just to get it the hell out of there. so many records bombing though... its insane. Casting Crowns better do gangbusters, thats all i know.

***

alan8r</lj>

i had already created an account, so i didnt accept your invite. BUT... how do i friend you? its not very intuitive.

EDIT... also, clearly the html doesnt work... i had problems getting it to post to blogspot as well, but i just clicked 'eff it' and it worked anyway, despite the warnings. what did you do to your code to post it on lj?

Did I ever talk more about the new Interpol record?  I'm still listening to it constantly... 'All Fired Up', 'Who Do You Think?' and 'Rest My Chemistry' are the big standouts for me personally, with 'Wrecking Ball' a close follow up.  I'll flesh it out more later.

***

I can't believe how good 'New York Times Crosswords' for the DS is.  It's incredibly polished, fun, really challenging, and it just feels really complete.  They didn't just throw something together to cash in on the DS craze, they really put together a great package.  I did a (crappy) mini-review on <lj user="gamealls"> if you're interested.  Great game.

The only bad thing is... I'm on the last boss of Puzzle Quest!  I haven't talked about it in a while, but I've still been playing it every day.  I'm a level... 43?  Anyway, the last boss has more than twice my health and some insane spells.  So I'm still working on leveling up so I can take him out, but now I have NYT Crosswords as a distraction... AND!!!  PICROSS DS COMES OUT TODAY!!! I'm a massive fan of Mario's Picross (and still play it every other week or so) and I've been dying to play this one for a while now.  SO that's another game on the pile.

Plus, today at this time, exactly two years ago, I was playing Doom 3 and trying not to freak out on my wedding day.  Happy Anniversary Fo!  What a wonderful life you've given me.

She's going out of town this weekend... grumble grumble... I'll not go further right now...

Needless to say, it's freaking hectic.

Angry Video Game Nerd does 'Independance Day' for the PS1. Not his best review... but I can't wait to see that tattoo...

NSFW!!!


***

Last night I had a dream that Fotini, Campbell, Cave and I went to Dion's. They had made several changes, none of which for the better. A large pepperoni pizza was now renamed 'The Toilet'. Fruit cups were filled with chardonnay. They had one register open on a Friday night. The tables were 1' x 3' and were not bolted down to anything. It was like eating on a tiny ironing board. The manager was a douche (ok, so thats not really a change). They served many types of alcohol, which is genius for a place staffed 90% by 16-year-olds. The menu looked like something out of Sambo's in 1984. It was miserable.

BUT! I know where most of this dream came from! I was really craving Dion's pepperoni pizza with extra oregano and shredded parmesgan yesterday, but I felt like garbage and couldn't handle it. Campbell messaged me last night and I had lunch with Cave the day before.

***

Yesterday we watched 'Sky High', great family film... And I watched 'Tomb Raider:Cradle of Life' during the day... it was pretty bad. The night before that we watched 'The Longest Yard' remake. It was alright. Exactly what I expected, but with better actors. Worth seeing if it sounds interesting, but it's not going to blow your mind.

***

Something that DID blow my mind however... and I can't recall if I already wrote about it... Touchmaster has a trivia game attached to it. You can choose your category, so naturally I chose music. The first question? 'What are the real names of Dean and Gene Ween?' pretty weird! I got that one easy. Then they hit me with "Which is a member of Andrew Bird's 'Bowl of Fire'?" and then it listed four names... wtf? talk about obscure. It also asked me who was a member of Max Q (besides Hutchencence or whatever). Really weird... it asks a lot of stuff about people I've never even heard of. And it's not limited at all my time... there are obsurce questions about obscure 50's country acts, a lot of new wave trivia, etc. so far, not a single rap question.

Yay! I'm ranked #50. Not too hot.

Touchmaster DS, despite it's faults, is pretty badass. Just needs a Clubhouse Games esque chat feature to send schlong drawings to your friends with.

The more I think about that Aqua Teen movie, the more I realize how much they've revealed.  It would have been nice to show all the scenes that are alluded to in the title sequence of the actual show (fighting in space and whatnot) and in the credits of the show (living on the moon as old men).  They do show a lot though with Lincoln and the pyramid.  I won't go into spoilers, but I'm sure the fanboys will add quite a lot to their wiki entry very soon.

***

I'm right about halfway through 'Cries Unheard'.  Mary Bell is just about to leave Red Bank.  I'm guessing she goes to an actual prison next.  She must be about 14 or so at this time.

***

Tonight we're going to hit up some dual Settlers of Catan.  Should be fun.  We need a night off.  Really!  We've been booked solid for a couple weeks now.  I've still only barely scratched 'Shivering Isles'.  Though I did drag 'Puzzle Quest' with me everywhere the past few days.  Great game.

Oh and I tried the 'Monster Madness' demo this morning.  Pretty fun, but it's TOUGH.  I'd rather have more enemies and have them die quickly than just a few that won't die.  That doesn't work for this type of game very well.  It's hard to see where you're going/shooting.  And the demo is glitchy!  The Chief walked into a hole in the wall, and when I followed I was trapped in a darkness that I couldn't escape, while still being attacked from every angle.  I died.

***

We recorded TWO podcasts yesterday.  One that I posted last night, and another to post next friday.  We're going to try and release them weekly.  We'll see how it goes.  We also did them both in one take each.  The other podcasts we've recorded 2-3 times until we got it 'right'.  It was pretty fun.  I still can't think of a way to promote it though.

Just saw AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE COLON MOVIE FILM FOR THEATERS with about 90 friends and it was wonderful. It's EXACTLY what you would expect. Well, there is one twist.

Also, five player DS Clubhouse Game-ing is wonderful as well, in addition to.

Last night I dreamed that I purchased a PS3. It was the greatest moment of my life. Also, Dion's burned to the ground and it was Adam's fault. It was the second greatest moment of my life.

The PS3 purchase was so significant that everyone I ever met (pretty much literally) showed up at my house to check it out. My house was of course the E3 conference (or what my mind imagines it would be from photographs), it was filled with huge, wonderful, video game displays. There was a large buffet. I didn't have room near my TV for the PS3, so I put it right on top of my Wii and the Wii was instantly crushed under the massive size of the PS3. My dad was mad at me for wasting so much money, but then I showed him the hydraulics that the PS3 came with and had it run some yankee-yankee-side-to-side action and he calmed down. Yes, my PS3 came tricked out.

The number one reason I was excited about the PS3 was for it's version of the Live Arcade. I could now download all the critically panned exclusive arcade titles and PSOne games I wanted.

Again, it was the greatest moment of my life. For the past seven months I couldn't have cared less about the PS3, but I woke up this morning excited at what the future holds for the PS3 and my possible future relationship with it.

***

Also, I played 'Puzzle Quest' pretty much every.single.free moment I had yesterday, and it was wonderful.

I just wrote this in the xbox_360 community and am just doing a straight cut and paste here...

my initial thoughts on Boom Boom Rocket.

Basically, it's a gigantic, beautiful, dumbed down Simon Says. As markers pass over a field you press the corresponding button to set off a firework against a city skyline backdrop. Set off enough fireworks at the right time and you can then set off even BIGGER, PRETTIER fireworks.

THIS is 800 points?

It's like 'Elite Beat Agents', 'DDR' or 'Guitar Hero' but without the interactive aspect. Instead of nailing guitar riffs on a plastic guitar or dancing around stomping buttons with your feet, you're just sitting on your ass pushing the buttons with your thumb. Freaking boring. And it's only got 10 songs, and the two sample tracks suck. It's like the annoying minigame that has shown up in every action/adventure game since Shenumme dropped.

I hate to rain on everyones parade, I'm sure someone will dig this game, and it is REALLY PRETTY, but I'm not surprised this wasn't hyped very much. And its an EA title, which given it's history on the 360, doesn't help.

For the same 800 points you can pick up Castlevania, or Alien Hominid, or Worms, or Robotron AND Geometry Wars, or Assault Heroes.

***

Puzzle Quest finally came yesterday! It's the same game as the PC demo, only tiny. Yes, the music sucks, yes the PC demo is superior, but for the DS its a great little game. It exactly the same game i've been raving about all week. in fact, i'm going to go play right now. i'm looking forward to leveling up past level 7.

OH! I will have to ding it on the lack of a downloadable demo! WTF!? I was DYING to play this with Fotini, but it's only got multi-card play. so David and Jon, please. go. buy. now.

dj_jonny_flash was mentioned on this weeks CAGCast for doing what he does best (and most often), complaining! He was the sole CAG to bitch about last weeks CAG Cast... nice work Jon! Cool to hear a familiar voice on my favorite podcast.

***

I submitted to the authority of batzradio and purchased a Klaxons EP, which came in the mail today. I don't dig the dancepunky-windowlickery-third track, but otherwise i'm digging it. thank you wise one.

***

i need to do a proper CD update soon.

***

MFing Kings of Leon in 3 days!

***

Went to Smokey's Dickhouse for dinner and it was nummers.

***

Mike gave me the funniest christmas gift ever tonight... Flavor of Love Season One! None of us have ever seen the show, he just thought a Flava Flav DVD would be a funny gag gift, and he was right. i cant wait to see some chick take a dump on the floor, i hope thats in this season.

***

work sucked.

***

I'm jonesing for Puzzle Quest. Wish my birthday were tomorrow.

well, over two hours later, my iTunes is looking pretty decent. of slightly more than 14,000 songs initially, i cut it down to 11,690... and unchecked many selections as well. i'll see how it goes, and if i really get fed up with searching, i'll go ahead and delete all my unchecked stuff.

i dont really get smart playlists. i want to split up my holiday, comedy and regular music. maybe even split off my hip hop from everything else. then i want to just shuffle those playlists... what am i not getting? i brought up the smart playlist function and it was way over my head.

Anyway... It's working pretty good so far. I've had it on shuffle for about the last 8 songs and none of them sucked or were annoying. BUT the last 4 were christian... all in a row. thats a bit weird right? ... ok... DangerDoom... we're back.

***

The Big News of the Day!!! I finally beat MISSION 8 on Advance Wars! It took me nearly two weeks of losing, and then a 30-some day battle, but I did it!

I need to get back into Contact... and now Lost Magic is beckoning...

BALLZ!

on a whim, we went to Toys R Us tonight.... we scored decently. Stacked for 5 bucks, Lost Magic for 10 bucks (PS... dj_jonny_flash they had Metroid Pinball for $9.99. welcome to my hell.), fotini bought that new Sega Brain Training ripoff game, and i bought my very first PSP game. Metal Gear Acid2. I do not own a PSP, but someday will and it was $5.00. yessir. i also got another Wii nunchuck. are they still hard to find? i got it for jon if he only has one, but i figure i can take it back or keep it for the future.

I had no idea how deep http://cheapassgamer.com was. I sent CheapyD a message about Hotel Dusk and he replied right away and pointed me to a whole thread in the DS forum about Hotel Dusk. So I start digging (not even knowing there was a DS forum period) and found 29 pages (!!!) of comments JUST under Hotel Dusk. Holy smokes... I also saw 50 billion other DS threads. How can anyone ever expect to find ANYTHING on CAG? Jon and I always joke that it's the most pisspoorly designed site on the web, and I'm realizing this more and more. I love CAG, but there's got to be a better way!

***

Tonight I expect my 'Settlers of Cataan' cherry to be popped. I'm excited and nervous... just as I should be.